Tabs

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Singapore: Sketching with ants in your pants

Boat Quay was very quiet on this Sunday morning. A small group of tourists were eating breakfast outside the Prince of Wales Backpacker Pub as I settled on the ground to doodle. A chap sat on a table wrapping his hands in boxing glove tape while waiting for the Juggernaut Fight Club to open above the Tong Fu Ju Griiled Fish restaurant. There was a faint whiff of alcohol, cigarettes and disinfectant in the area. It didn't take long to realise that ants from the nearby tree were infiltrating my shorts, which lead to some rather embarrassing fidgeting. Bravely, I soldiered on.

A chap who stopped to chat for a while recommended that I should draw two temples; the Shuang Lin Temple in Toa Payoh and the Thian Hock Keng temple on Telok Ayer Street. Despite my assurances that I would be able to find these two sites, he kindly wrote the names in English and Chinese in my sketchbook to show to people if I got lost.